What is distribution and why is it important?
Distribution is how frequently a Space or its content is shown to people on Quora. Quora uses many different signals to learn how to show people the content they would most likely be interested in. There are two ways to make it more likely the people interested in your content will be shown your content as they browse the product, check their notifications, or read their email. You can do this by:
- Creating content that earns followers on Quora
- Getting more followers by sharing your Space off Quora
Creating content that earns followers on Quora
Quora's distribution system is more likely to show your content to someone if it receives signals indicating they would be interested in your Space. If someone follows your Space after seeing its content, this is a strong signal that your content may be valuable to others with similar interests. With this in mind, consider the following questions when posting content in your Space:
- Does this content represent my Space's intended purpose well?
- Does this content represent my Space's intended quality well?
- Will this content attract the type of followers that will be interested in the other content in my Space?
If your Space's quality or focus degrades over time, this may hurt your Space's distribution. One of the most important things to maintain quality over time is to be careful about who you accept as a contributor. People follow Spaces for a point of view, so it's ok to go a little off-topic sometimes, but if the focus isn't clear, people may not understand what your Space is about. For guidance, see Defining and upholding Standards for your Space.
The three points above are the most important considerations for creating content that gets your Space followed, but there are also other considerations that may improve your distribution.
- Choose an eye-catching image related to the topic and a title that draws the reader in. A reader will see the title, the first few lines of content, and an image (if available), in their notifications, feed, and emails. If they don't interact with those notifications, your content will be shown to them less frequently, so a little effort goes a long way here.
- Choose a credential that indicates your knowledge or experience. This helps readers find you as they browse Quora.
- Answer relevant questions in your Space. When you add a question to your Space from suggestions or by requesting an answer from your Space and then answer the question in your Space, your answer will also be shown to visitors to that question outside of the Space. This not only helps people find you from questions they find via searching the web, but it also helps your Space show up when people search a topic on Quora.
Getting more followers by sharing your Space off Quora
Another signal to Quora's distribution that your Space's content is valuable and interesting to someone is whether your Space is growing in popularity outside of Quora. The more followers you get coming from outside of Quora, the more your Space will be shown to people inside of Quora, but on-platform distribution isn't the only thing - you can leverage your existing off-platform networks to grow your Space:
- Share your Space and your Space's content with your existing network.
- Write content that audiences on other platforms will be interested in, and share a link to it (see How do I share content from Quora?)
- Share your Space on other platforms (see How do I share my Space outside of Quora?)
- Share your Space with your contacts (see Bulk importing CSV contacts to your Space and Importing Google contacts to join your Space on Quora)
- Share your Space and your Space's content with another creator's network.
- Think about who would be interested in your content and who or what they are already following on other platforms. If your content is valuable to their audience, you might be able to strike up a mutually beneficial partnership with them.